Underbalancing, Learning By Yourself, and Ab Training

By admin on September 4, 2008 in Handstands

Going to answer more questions today.

Before I begin let me once again advise that when you send in your questions to to give details and don’t just ask a broad question like ‘how do I do a handstand?’

Before you ask anything look around the site, especially the articles section to see if your answer can be found there. And please make your questions readable. I can’t answer if I don’t know what you’re talking about

“when i am doin my handstand i will kick up but i am havin trouble stayin balanced. how to i keep balanced if i keep falling forward so i am facing the same way as i was before i kicked up”
Alicia

It sounds like you are underbalancing Alicia. You need to keep the balance on your hands more towards the front and your body toward overbalancing. I explain why in depth in this article on scientific hand balancing.

“how do you learn how to do a handstand by yourself”
Felicity

Without any help the journey is going to be hard. So you should read the articles on the site or get instructions on how to do it. This will get you started – How to do a Handstand Article – and this will take your further – Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide.

Anyway you do it though it’ll take a lot of practice. Be persistent.

One last question.

“I know that having toned abs helps you with balancing when doing a handstand, and since crunches don’t really work, I wanted to know if you have any exercises that I can do, that work very well. Exercises that don’t require an exercise ball, or anything like that.”
Kristina

Toned abs don’t help with a handstand, strong abs do. There are tons of possibilities. Here’s a few basic exercises that require no equipment at all.

V-ups (or any kind of sit-up)
Arms Extended Plank or Pushups
Holding an L-sit
Leg Raises and Thrusts

The important thing is to work your abs with not just high rep exercises. Do difficult ones where you can’t do more than 5 reps or a 5 second hold.

My favorite course on building strong abdominals like a gymnast is called just that, Gymnastic Abs, put out by my friend Ed. It’s a series of progressions from real basic exercises to difficult ones used by gymnasts. And you know what they can do.